Deep (Zarry AU)

July, 2015

Harry

1D Soundcheck, Commonwealth Stadium, Edmonton, Canada

The juddering intro to No Control pulsed around the empty stadium. Harry had vaulted back onto the stage from the pit, all one-handed and athletic with his white tee swinging, as Louis wandered out from behind the backdrop before picking his way carefully over the tangle of licorice-black cables towards Harry. Harry swept his hair out of his eyes and pulled up the back of his jeans by the waistband. Harry always lost weight as a tour wore on and these ones were getting too loose for his taste. He frowned at Louis as he approached. Louis was holding a half-eaten taco in one hand and a phone in the other. He was just a bit too unshaven, Harry thought; Louis hadn't been quite his immaculate self recently, since the baby news.

Louis stopped in front of Harry. Harry stared at him. Louis had a far-away, slightly confused look on his face. Harry was about to ask him what was wrong when something distracted him: it was his transmitter unit, catching at the skin on his lower back. The clip was always rubbing him these days and Harry swapped his microphone into his left hand and reached around with his right to adjust the angle the unit sat on his waistband.

"They've broken up," Louis said, through his mouthful of taco, with a casualness that suggested he was recounting the latest football result.

There was a moment of silence: Harry twisting awkwardly as he tried to retrieve the clip, Louis chewing as he looked down at the phone.

"Broken up? Wha - who?" Harry glanced at Louis briefly, then went back to twisting around, looking over his shoulder and pulling at the transmitter.

Louis swallowed down the mouthful and coughed.

"Zayn and Perrie. He texted me just now."

Harry looked back at Louis. Surely he must not have heard him right.

Harry frowned at Louis then looked back over his shoulder, trying to pretend he still cared about the transmitter. Or anything else on the planet. "Zayn and P....broken up?" The transmitter unit fell to the floor as Harry said it. As he crouched to retrieve it, he felt his heart pounding through his t-shirt. It was as if someone had suddenly rewound his emotions by about two years.

"No one knows yet," Louis continued, pushing his phone into the pocket of his bomber jacket. "Well, only their closest.... And us, now."

"God. " Harry paused. "Really?" He frowned at Louis, who nodded and flicked his hair sideways in his usual it's all beneath me way. Harry was quite pleased to see that side of Louis - he hadn't been his usual sassy self recently, and Harry missed it. But the feeling of being pleased was growing inside Harry - morphing into something bigger - and he knew it was about more than just Louis' rediscovered sassiness.

Harry tucked the transmitter into his back pocket and tried to look serious.

"But why? They only just announced the wedding date, didn't they?" he said. His voice was slower and even deeper than usual.

"Said he couldn't do it. Wasn't ready." Louis sighed and looked up at the wide, white Canadian sky that stretched over the stadium. "Quelle surprise".

Harry thought for a minute, his lips closed in a flat line, looking out towards the empty seats at his eyeline that covered the side of the stadium. He rubbed his upper arm with his free hand, as if he were cold. Then he turned back to Louis. "So...when is... is it, like, gonna be.... announced... The split, I mean?"

"Next week, Zayn said."

"Well." Harry stared at the dusty, scratched stage floor for a minute, then took a deep breath and exhaled: "Fuck me".

"Don't mind if I do," Louis said with a smile as he wiped his fingers on a paper napkin.